Sleep and Insomnia – Understanding Restlessness at Its Root

When the Night Feels Endless

Struggling with sleep isn’t just frustrating—it’s lonely. The world goes quiet, but your mind doesn’t. You lie in bed, cycling through thoughts, fears, or to-do lists. You may fall asleep only to wake at 3am, mind racing. Or lie there for hours, feeling tense, exhausted, and wired all at once.

Insomnia isn’t just about sleep. It’s about what rises to the surface when everything else stops. And that’s where we begin our work—not with rigid sleep schedules or quick fixes, but with deep curiosity about what’s happening beneath the surface.

More Than a Sleep Problem

Often, difficulty sleeping is a symptom of something deeper. It might be anxiety that doesn’t get voiced during the day. Grief that only shows itself in the dark. Old survival patterns that keep your nervous system alert, even when there’s no current danger. Or an internal pressure to be productive—even in rest.

Rather than focusing solely on sleep hygiene or behavioural tweaks, we take a wider view. We explore how your days shape your nights—and how your nights may be holding emotional material that hasn’t yet found a home.

Listening to the Nervous System

Sleep is not a switch you can flip. It’s a state your body enters when it feels safe enough to let go. That means our work often involves learning to recognise and support your nervous system. We look at how your body holds tension, how your breath changes under stress, and what might help you shift from vigilance into something softer.

This might include somatic work, breath awareness, or practices that help gently down-regulate your system. But more importantly, we attend to what’s keeping you up—not just physically, but emotionally.

The Emotional Landscape of Sleeplessness

Clients I work with often tell me their thoughts feel louder at night. Regrets. Anxieties. Self-criticism. Memories. The quiet of night can feel like a void that invites everything you’ve managed to hold off during the day.

In our sessions, we make space for those thoughts. Not to problem-solve, but to understand why they come—and what they might need. Sometimes what keeps us awake is grief that hasn't been named. Other times, it’s a lifelong habit of pushing through, without pause.

Relearning Rest

Rest isn’t just physical. It’s emotional. Relational. Internal. In our work, we explore how you relate to rest. Do you feel guilty when you’re not productive? Anxious when things are quiet? Unworthy of stillness?

We gently unravel those patterns, helping you reconnect with the part of you that is allowed to slow down. To exhale. To soften.

Sleep as a Byproduct of Healing

Rather than chasing sleep, we attend to what your whole system is trying to tell us. And often, when your emotional world feels more held—your body follows.

If you’ve been living in cycles of exhaustion, restlessness, and frustration, you’re not alone. And you don’t need to fix it all to begin.

You just need a place to land. I’d be honoured to be that place.